Buenos Aires Dining: El Obrero

The Irishman arrives on Friday morning - his 40th birthday - and, typically, for the first day in ages, it pours with rain. He wants to go clothes shopping in Palermo Soho because he came to Buenos Aires four years ago and remembers it as being cheap as chips. I have already assured him about massive inflation and that it's more expensive to buy clothes in Buenos Aires now than it is in London, but he doesn't believe it until he returns to the same stores he went to a few years ago and sees the price tags for himself.

We wander around in the rain for hours and get soaked but we find him a few cool shops, make a few extortionate purchases and finally head to El Obrero for a birthday dinner. El Obrero is one of the more famous restaurants and adorns the pages of every guidebook I've seen, but we've had it recommended to us by various people and we can't wait to try it. We've made a 9pm booking as it books up fast.

We get a taxi to La Boca, which is essential since the area isn't safe to walk around at night. I am way too dressed up for this place in a long, silky, colourful dress but it's a special occasion. El Obrero is packed to the seams, half with tourists and half with the locals. The walls are covered in football regalia, menus and posters and it has a cosy feel.

The photo is from the restaurant's website as I didn't take many of my own

We order celebratory champagne, followed by a bottle of delicious red, and a couple of steaks, medium. We have several enormous side orders and proceed to stuff our faces. The service is simple but the food is absolutely delicious - certainly a perfect 'Welcome to Argentina' meal for the Irishman, and extremely affordable. 50 British pounds for two steaks, one portion of mashed potato, one portion of chips, a salad, two glasses of champagne champagnes, water, bread and a bottle of wine.